Story of Acquisition of गाना.com song: Deal was done on Google Chat

[catchnames]

DNJOURNAL has reported "Hindi IDN, puny code xn--31b8axdb.com (meaning "song" in Hindi) changed hands for $2,500 in a private transaction. "
I am the buyer of the name and posted my story at my blog.Any comment?Did I pay more got a deal?

http://hi.fi.vc/2011/04/story-of-acq...song-deal.html

[phio]

Good purchase. Congrats to both the buyer and seller!

[TrafficDomainer]

Originally Posted by catchnames

DNJOURNAL has reported "Hindi IDN, puny code xn--31b8axdb.com (meaning "song" in Hindi) changed hands for $2,500 in a private transaction. "
I am the buyer of the name and posted my story at my blog.Any comment?Did I pay more got a deal?

http://hi.fi.vc/2011/04/story-of-acq...song-deal.html

I think it's a gamble if you wonder why the keyword "गाना" only gets 390 monthly google searches (exact) but it's a bargain if you have confidence that over 300 million Hindi speaking folks will eventually adopt Hindi keyboards whether through mobile phones or conventional keyboards. What I don't quite understand with Hindi is why most Hindi speakers type Romanized scripts in Hindi as opposed to using Hindi Devnagri script even when they have the option to do so, especially when their mobile phone keys could be Hindi enabled. Out of curiosity does iPhone come with Hindi keyboard by default?

[TrafficDomainer]

I actually just checked my iPhone keyboards settings. Interestingly Hindi is not there but the option to add Tibitan and Cherokee are available.

[domainguru]

"Based on my metrics गाना.com have valuation in 7 figure without development and with development sky is the limit in next two years."

Please share these metrics, but keep them about online stuff, not "there are lots of Hindi speakers out there"

Valuing this name at 7 figures short term without dev sounds .... how can I put this ..... total lunacy. If you have any metrics that show otherwise, please share.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by domainguru

"Based on my metrics गाना.com have valuation in 7 figure without development and with development sky is the limit in next two years."

Please share these metrics, but keep them about online stuff, not "there are lots of Hindi speakers out there"

Valuing this name at 7 figures short term without dev sounds .... how can I put this ..... total lunacy. If you have any metrics that show otherwise, please share.

Its easy to be dismissive and impossible to prove.

For me the answer is to just keep renewing and forget.

Most of the arguments you could raise against Hindi you could raise against Arabic. When we first invested in Arabic, the Arabic internet wasn't even searchable, probably didn't really exist. Now Arabic is bringing in more views, more clicks and more revenue than Russian and Japanese combined.

[TrafficDomainer]

Some interesting posts here (2006 though) : http://www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=14985.0

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by TrafficDomainer

Some interesting posts here (2006 though) : http://www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=14985.0

This always was nonsense. More newspapers are sold in Hindi Script than in English and it is the World's biggest market.

The Huge/Davengari Internet is huge. Many terms are now dragging up 10 Million pages.

OK, much of the infrastructure is missing. Google don't seem to have done much of job on India yet. But if they don't then someone else will. I see Google now have most of the India scripts in their Translator, so I guess it must be on their Radar.

[bwhhisc]

I am not a native speaker, but seems the prime keyword for lurics/songs is गीत and is owned by a native speaker.

Here are google trends on the two terms compared by search:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=%E0%A...5%80%E0%A4%A4+

I would also be interested to see your 'metrics' and evaluation of this name. From my experience, always best to get an opinion from at least 2 native speakers...you can also communicate by email with the owners of a few Hindi English dictionaries who are usually gracious to help.

[TrafficDomainer]

Originally Posted by Rubber Duck

Its easy to be dismissive and impossible to prove.

For me the answer is to just keep renewing and forget.

Most of the arguments you could raise against Hindi you could raise against Arabic. When we first invested in Arabic, the Arabic internet wasn't even searchable, probably didn't really exist. Now Arabic is bringing in more views, more clicks and more revenue than Russian and Japanese combined.

10-15 years ago there were not that many Thai content online either. Few years prior to that (around 1991 or so) I recall that Thais used to type Thai on the internet with Roman scripts because computers back then didn't have Thai installed by default. However, Thais were already using Thai script everywhere with their typewriters so when Thai keyboards and scripts became available digitally, people adopted them right away. However, with Hindi, from what I understand, the use of Hindi typewriters were not widespread back in the days either. I am all for people using their own scripts rather than lose their own written languages but I am unclear how things are going to pan out with online Hindi in India.

By the way, going back to your Arabic example, does anyone on here know if Arabs have been using Arabic keyboards by and large or is this a recent adoption?

[domainguru]

Originally Posted by Rubber Duck

Its easy to be dismissive and impossible to prove.

For me the answer is to just keep renewing and forget.

Most of the arguments you could raise against Hindi you could raise against Arabic. When we first invested in Arabic, the Arabic internet wasn't even searchable, probably didn't really exist. Now Arabic is bringing in more views, more clicks and more revenue than Russian and Japanese combined.

I'm not being dismissive but when someone prints they have metrics to show a domain is worth 7 figures within 2 years then I would like to see them. Is that too much to ask?

Frankly, the searches for this term are pathetic. How can it be worth 7 figures?

I'm not saying Hindi domains are no good, not at all. I am saying this domain is very very average, and certainly not worth 7 figures any time I will be on this planet.

[TrafficDomainer]

Another thought that the use of Hindi script (Devengari) actually intuitively makes much better sense than using Romanized script. Like Thai, Hindi is tonal. So when you use the word like มา in Thai (meaning come), if you ramanize the word to Ma.The reader could have difficulty understanding whether you are trying to refer to มา (come), ม้า (horse) or หมา (dog). I am sure Hindi readers trying to read Romanized Hindi would have similar diffucult time with certain words. What I dont' get though is why there has been no serious/massive push on the part of the Indian government to work in partnership with the digital world to make Hindi keyboard go mainstream among Hindi speakers. I would think that the longer you wait to push such an initiative, the lesser the chance of adoption, especially when old habbits die hard.

[catchnames]

There are lot of good news about promotion of Open source and Native language by Big players [google and microsoft(no open source from microsoft but still significant contribution)]and local government. This should reflect in coming years.I will try to keep you people updated with those development going forward.

[idn]

Originally Posted by bwhhisc

I am not a native speaker

And all these years I thought...

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by domainguru

I'm not being dismissive but when someone prints they have metrics to show a domain is worth 7 figures within 2 years then I would like to see them. Is that too much to ask?

Frankly, the searches for this term are pathetic. How can it be worth 7 figures?

I'm not saying Hindi domains are no good, not at all. I am saying this domain is very very average, and certainly not worth 7 figures any time I will be on this planet.

True. So if you are confident then just wait for your moment. No need to make outrageous claims.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by TrafficDomainer

Another thought that the use of Hindi script (Devengari) actually intuitively makes much better sense than using Romanized script. Like Thai, Hindi is tonal. So when you use the word like มา in Thai (meaning come), if you ramanize the word to Ma.The reader could have difficulty understanding whether you are trying to refer to มา (come), ม้า (horse) or หมา (dog). I am sure Hindi readers trying to read Romanized Hindi would have similar diffucult time with certain words. What I dont' get though is why there has been no serious/massive push on the part of the Indian government to work in partnership with the digital world to make Hindi keyboard go mainstream among Hindi speakers. I would think that the longer you wait to push such an initiative, the lesser the chance of adoption, especially when old habbits die hard.

I did not realise Hindi is tonal. Look what happened Pin Yin 100% to 1% in the blink of an eye.

[TrafficDomainer]

On a second thought, I am mistaken, I was thinking of Punjabi which is tonal but quite similar to Hindi. Hindi though probably isn't tonal like Punjabi. Anyway, I still think it would make more sense for Hindi Speakers to use Hindi script as not all Hindi alphabets are well represented by Roman script.